Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF's global Chief of WASH, visits Rohingya refugee children at a learning center in Kutupolong refugee camp, Cox's Bazaar District, Bangladesh on 12 March 2018. Credit: UNICEF

By Sanjay Wijesekera
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 2018 (IPS)

When disaster strikes, or conflict rages, families soon discover their most urgent need – water. In such precarious situations, access is usually limited or non-existent, and children and their families are forced to put themselves in further danger in the quest for water.

During such times, water and sanitation experts are often the first responders to communities affected by conflict and natural disasters. They work to ensure safe access to water, which paves the way for other vital interventions such as health, nutrition, education and protection.

As a young engineer, I was deployed by an international aid agency to Rwanda in 1994 in the aftermath of the civil war and horrific genocide. I arrived in Kibeho in the wake of suffering and great loss: shallow graves on roadsides; blood-stained walls in the local church; the unmistakable smell of rotting flesh.

Amid the death and destruction, it was vital to focus on the immediate needs of the children whose lives remained at risk from malnutrition, waterborne diseases and diarrhea.

For those of us lucky enough to have easy access to drinking water and a functioning toilet – the lack of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is not a major concern. But for the one in four children around the world who live in countries affected by conflict or disaster, it is an overwhelming preoccupation and a matter of survival.

In times of conflict, more children tend to die from diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation than from direct violence.

In Kibeho, children walked up and down steep hillsides to fetch drinking water from streams and unprotected springs polluted with human and animal feces. I remember meeting Aimee, an emaciated little girl, in a makeshift shelter made of branches and thatched with dried leaves. Aimee was malnourished, severely dehydrated, and in desperate need of medical attention.

Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global Chief of WASH, visits Kutupolong camp for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazaar District, Bangladesh on 12 March 2018. Since an outbreak of violence began on 25 August 2017, more than 670,000 Rohingya people have sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. UNICEF and partners are working to provide for the needs of this enormous refugee population who will be all the more vulnerable during the upcoming monsoon and cyclone seasons. Credit: UNICEF

Despite her condition, she managed a smile as we hurried to get her the urgent medical care she needed. Her resilience gave fresh meaning to our job – to install a water supply in her village – which was a major camp for thousands of Rwanda’s internally displaced people.

I saw the same strength and resilience in Myanmar when I visited displaced populations of Rohingya in Rakhine state in 2013. The ground on which people pitched their tents – their makeshift homes – was low-lying and waterlogged.

The lack of sanitation and hygiene made living conditions not just unbearable, but a huge risk to life especially for children and their families living on hard-to-reach islands that were only accessible by boat.

Children, once again, were visibly malnourished and although UNICEF and partner organisations were providing water, children and families still had to walk long distances to collect it. It was an overwhelming task that called for commitment and persistence.

In the face of this adversity I was amazed by the great resilience demonstrated by women who described their shared care system which helped them cope with their difficult circumstances.

United by their loss and grief, households partnered with each other to cook, fetch water, gather firewood, care for children and tend to the sick. There was no complaining, no anger. Just hope, pragmatism, and a pooling of meagre resources.

Since the outbreak of violence on 25 August 2017, more than 670,000 Rohingya people have sought refuge in Bangladesh. During my visit, there this month, I was reminded yet again of the importance of maintaining the humanitarian response of providing safe water and sanitation to people affected by conflict while sitting with refugee children in a learning center in Kutupolong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar.

Their smiles and laughter were echoes of resilience that must be bolstered by those working to meet the needs of this enormous refugee population, particularly as the approaching monsoon and cyclone season brings with it health risks and hygiene challenges.

Over the past six years, I have witnessed the humanitarian response of delivering water, sanitation and hygiene in times of conflict and disaster. I’ve seen the profound impact it has for children who have lost so much and yet remain incredibly resilient.

We share the strength and determination of children like Aimee and the women and girls in Myanmar and Bangladesh, and we remain committed to preserving the rights of every child to water, sanitation and hygiene.

*UNICEF launched a fundraising appeal to support children and families affected by conflict and disaster globally. More than a fifth of the appeal will go towards UNICEF’s work on WASH. UNICEF is the leading humanitarian WASH agency in emergencies, providing over half of the emergency WASH services in humanitarian crises around the world.

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Credit: BIgstock

By Sanjay Wijesekera
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 19 2017 (IPS)

“I don’t have enough money to buy clean water, so I have to come and collect it from the river. I have young twins – a boy and a girl. I know the water is dirty – it often makes them sick but I have no other option.” Those are the words of a South Sudanese mother, Latif, who lives by the river Nile in Juba.

This week, finance ministers gathered at the IMF - World Bank Spring Meetings will discuss how to achieve the sustainable development goal of providing clean water and sanitation for all by 2030
Latif’s struggle for clean water is shared by billions of people around the world, in fact today almost two billion people will use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces  due to a lack of funds or access. Without safe water, Latif’s children risk joining the 1,400 children under the age of five who die from diarrhoea daily.

It doesn’t have to be this way. More and better managed resources can help provide water and sanitation access for all.

This week, finance ministers gathered at the IMF – World Bank Spring Meetings will discuss how to achieve the sustainable development goal of providing clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. In addition to providing access and basic infrastructure, developing countries are now urged to ensure that this access is efficient, equitable, universal and safely managed.  But how will it be financed?

Ministers will look at the magnitude of the financial challenge, how to use existing resources more efficiently, and how to access additional resources, focusing in particular on domestic sources – a mammoth task when we know that the price tag for meeting these ambitious goals is about $114 billion per year (excluding operating and maintenance costs).

Charity Ncube, 30, of the rural town of Masvingo in southeastern Zimbabwe, carries her child and a 20-litre container of water. Credit: Sally Nyakanyanga/IPS

UNICEF and its partners are working towards equipping and supporting governments and others to achieve the sustainable development goals. We believe that reaching the most vulnerable and the most disadvantaged is more cost-effective and yields a higher return on investment.

And the evidence is backing us up. A 2013 study study showed that improving sanitation for the poorest households actually brings greater, more immediate health benefits for all.

Echoing Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, ‘When we reach the most disadvantaged people we dramatically improve an entire society’s health, education, equality and economic prospects over the long term.’

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By Sanjay Wijesekera
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 2016 (IPS)

Last year we watched with cautious optimism as UN chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the new Sustainable Development Goals, and called upon the world to meet them.

Sanjay Wijesekera

Cautious, because we’d been here before. In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals were set – to try to lift people out of poverty, improve their health, protect the environment, and so on. They focused the attention of the world on clear, achievable targets.

In the area of water, sanitation and hygiene, however, the MDGs did not try to reach everyone. They aimed to halve the proportion of the global population that didn’t have adequate drinking water, and halve the proportion of the population that didn’t have or use toilets.

The water goal was met but left 663 million people without improved drinking water in 2015. The sanitation goal was missed and 2.4 billion people still have no access.

The SDGs set a high bar of universal and equitable access to safe water, and adequate sanitation and hygiene. That is the challenge facing representatives of some 50 countries, the UN, and numerous civil society partners gathered in Addis Ababa this week for the Sanitation and Water for All Ministerial Meeting.

The SDGs force us to move beyond looking at infrastructure, to addressing accessibility, availability and quality of services that were not envisaged under the MDGs. They call for “safely managed” water, sanitation and hygiene services.

They call for extending WASH services, not only to households, but to schools, workplaces, and other institutions. They call for an end to dumping and water pollution; an end to open defecation; addressing water scarcity. This means we have to radically change our way of working.

For UNICEF this is a crucial challenge, because water, sanitation and hygiene underpin so much of the rest of the goals. Those related to nutrition, health, education, poverty and economic growth, urban services, gender equality, resilience and climate change cannot be met without progress on water, sanitation and hygiene.

It is so evident when it comes to children. Some 800 children under 5 years old die every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene. Around the world 159 million children are stunted, a condition linked to open defecation.

What we have to do is:

1. Focus on those furthest behind. Progress during the MDG era almost as a rule left behind the poorest and most marginalized. Generally, the wealthier groups of the population are served long before the poorest. Those not reached include the rural poor; those who live in urban slums; ethnic minorities; the disabled; and many women and children. We must deliberately target those who have so far been excluded.

2. Ensure good governance and accountability. Good policies, strong institutions, robust financing, competent monitoring systems and comprehensive capacity development are among the fundamental “building blocks” that are needed to deliver results. In Addis, we will agree how to put these building blocks in place and mainstream them within country plans.

3. Address the impact of climate change: Nearly 160 million children live in severely drought-prone areas, mostly in Africa and Asia, where safe drinking water and sanitation are already in short supply. Droughts affect nutrition, but also education, since children and women are the main carriers of water when it is scarce, eating up hours needed for school and other activities. Nearly half a billion children live in flood zones, the vast majority of them in Asia. Apart from the drowning risks to children, floods compromise water supplies and damage sanitation facilities, increasing the risk of diarrhoea outbreaks. Other water-borne diseases which are predicted to increase with higher temperatures include malaria, dengue, zika, and cholera. We must prepare for the consequences of climate change, especially for those already most vulnerable.

4. Use innovation, testing and data. In 2016, we know better and cheaper ways of testing water than we did in 2000, and can ensure that those ‘improved sources’ are also safe sources. We have ways of collecting and disseminating data which can help governments pinpoint the populations left behind. And we can use new technology to bring better and cheaper toilets, and better and safer water to the millions who don’t have them now.

Addis must be our springboard to action, because millions of people should not have to wait for years to have safe water, proper toilets and better hygiene.

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